Welcome to Pennsylvania DMR
On Saturday afternoon the old 146.910 analog repeater was retired from service after being up for over 20 years. It had gone though many controller upgrades, tower moves, voting receivers and other updates over time. Earlier in the week the repeater locked into full transmit and I was not able to visit the tower site to remedy the problem. At this point in time I figured it was time to move it over to DMR to simplify things.
Upon arriving at the site the first thing I did was determine what happened to lock the repeater into transmit. I disabled the power to the transmiter and powered the repeater up. After 4 years or more of not needing to visit the site, it was nothing more than a full hard drive. The entire time the repeater was up it was recording each and every transmission. I never removed any of the files during this time. I removed some very early recordings, pulled the power, wired back up the transmitter and it was on the air again.
Seeing as how I brought the DMR repeater and networking equipment with me I figured it was time to change things out! First the computer, keyboard and mouse, then off to the power supply, transmitter, receivers, and the voter bank. The cabinet was pretty much empty.
Installing the Mototrbo repeater was a little bit more trouble then I thought it would be. Remember the old push in grips for screws on a rack mount cabinet? They were not working all that well for me. It would have been a lot easier with two people than just myself. After about 15 minutes of playing with it I was able to get it mounted like it should be.
Next came the network. All powered up and no network access. This will be fixed in the near future.
Before I get into the programing, I wanted to share with you just how well it works! In the past there was the main receiver at Bloss Mtn, my house in Whitnyville, and another at Cedar Mtn (thanks to the Grand Canyon Repeater Group). The receiver at my house seems to cover 15 from Blossburg to Mandfield the best. I could work the repeater on that stretch of road on high power on the HT but was very noisy. Now, on that same stretch of road I can use low power (a little less than a watt) and hold the repeater all the way to the Mansfield exit (North bound). I was able to use medium power from there headed West on route 6 all the way to the top of North Bullock road (by the Polaris dealership). At that point in time I went back to low power all the way to my house. I was also able to use low power in the parking lot as Weis Market.
Now for the programming. On your radio you will need to program 146.91000 as the receive frequency and 146.31000 as the transmit frequency. Color Code 1. A color code is like a pl tone in the analog world.
All traffic on timeslot 2 is local only! If you want to talk locally to people please use this talkgroup! Please only program talkgroup 2 on timeslot 2 in your radio. This should be the only talkgroup on timeslot 2. This repeater is connected to a cbridge and not brandmeister due to the wide area coverage and needing some control over how it is getting used.
Talkgroup Name - Talkgroup Number - Timeslot - Static or PTT
Local 2 - 2 - 2 - Static (FullTime)
Buffalo - 90 - 1 - PTT
USA Nationwide - 3100 - 1- PTT
TAC 310 - 310 - 1- PTT - Linked to BrandMeister
TAC 311 - 311 - 1 - PTT - Linked to BrandMeister
TAC 312 - 312 - 1 - PTT - Linked to BrandMeister
TAC 313 - 313 - 1 - PTT
TAC 314 - 314 - 1 - PTT
TAC 315 - 315 - 1 - PTT
TAC 316 - 316 - 1 - PTT
TAC 317 - 317 - 1 - PTT
TAC 318 - 318 - 1 - PTT
TAC 319 - 319 - 1 - PTT
Pennsylvania Statewide - 3142 - 1 - Static
PEMA - 31420 - 1 - PTT
Pensylvania TAC - 31421 - 1 - PTT
DMR MARC North America - 3 - 1 - PTT
South Central PA Local - 31423 - 1 - PTT
DelMarVa - 8802 - 1 - PTT
Treasure Coast FL - 31123 - 1 - PTT
Southern Tier NY - 31367 - 1 - PTT
Hurricane Net - 3199 - 1- PTT (Only during hurricane season)
NYC Local - 444 - 1 - PTT
Parrot Test - 9998 - 1- PTT (only stays active for 1 minute)
BrandMeister North America - 93 - 1 - PTT
Triangle NC - 31371 - 1 - PTT (friends of N3FE)
N3TJJ Local - 314259 - 1 - PTT
Ny Statewide - 3136 - 1 - PTT
UpState NY - 31361 - 1 - PTT
Disconnect - - 4000 - 1 - PTT
Static means the talkgroup is always active. PTT means the talkgroup will stay active for 12 minutes after the last PTT was done on the repeater for the desired talkgroup. Talkgroup 4000 will shutoff any talkgroup until you key up a new talkgroup.
There are a few rules that are DMR wide across all systems that should be followed. Statewide talkgroups should be kept to a 10 minutes limit unless there is a net active. If you are going to talk longer than 10 minutes, please QSY to PA TAC 31421.
TACS are NOT call talkgroups (call channels) and not a place to go just to make a contact. They are a place to go when you need more time to talk to someone or you are on a busy talkgroup like 3100 and want to move off and free up a talkgroup.
Have fun and enjoy the repeater! I am hoping to find a location for the UHF machine as well!
73 - Corey N3FE